Aboelkheir Overcomes Gilis-Coll To Reach Maiden Gold Semi At Palm Hills

World No.15 Fayrouz Aboelkheir advanced to her maiden PSA Squash Tour Gold event semi-final on following a five-game upset over fourth-seeded Belgian Nele Gilis-Coll on a high-quality night of action at the Palm Hills Open in Cairo.

Aboelkheir, 19, twice came from behind during the back-and-forth 73-minute duel at Golf Central Mall, eventually coming through to take victory over former world No.4 Gilis-Coll by a 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-3, 11-8 scoreline.

After an opening four games that saw multiple swings in momentum, the fifth game couldn't have been much tighter, with the two players trading points all the way to 8-8.

However, it was No.6 seed Aboelkheir who delivered her most accurate squash when she needed it most, claiming three straight points to book her spot in the last four of the women's draw.

"Nele is a very good player," Aboelkheir said after the match. "She's been to the top four in the world. She's very experienced and she's been on tour more than me, so it was very hard to prepare for that one mentally and physically.

"I'm just trying to enjoy my time on that court as much as possible - it's my lucky court, it's where I reached my maiden quarter-final last year [at the PSA World Championships]."

Awaiting Aboelkheir in the semi-finals is world No.1 Nouran Gohar, who overcame a quick start from world No.12 Nada Abbas to advance in four games.

In a punishing match played in 30-plus degrees heat, top seed Gohar rallied from a game behind to defeat an impressive showing from No.5 seed Abbas by a 9-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-8 scoreline.

Meanwhile, on the men's side of the event, recently-crowned World Champion Mostafa Asal was forced to produce some gutsy squash to overcome No.8 seed Mohamed Abouelghar in a high-quality 78-minute affair.

Asal, who stretched his winning run on the PSA Squash Tour to 16 matches with victory tonight, was forced to display some of his best athleticism to keep fellow Egyptian Abouelghar's red-hot short game at bay, with the former world No.7 rolling back the years with some brilliant periods of squash.

After clinching a crucial third-game tie-break, it was world No.1 Asal who raced through to victory in the fourth, winning 11 of the last 12 points in the match to advance to the last four.

"It was a good performance today, actually," Asal said after the match. "Not squash-wise, but mentally. Today was tough, but we're learning from that mentally, and I'm really happy with my mentality today.

"I'm happy to be very professional today, and the crowd, the support of my family, friends, everyone helped me through."

Asal will face world No.10 Youssef Soliman in the semi-finals after the No.4 seed dispatched world No.46 Karim El Hammamy in straight games.

The Egyptian found his lines and lengths right from the outset of the match and rarely gave El Hammamy any opportunities to exploit. After a well-contested opening game, it was Soliman who came on strong as the match progressed, recording an 11-7, 11-5, 11-5 win to close out the night's play.